NCAA Football

Gators Determined to Ignore Critics

Posted Oct 25, 2009 8:30PM By Jim Henry (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, SEC

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Urban MeyerThe Florida Gators are circling the wagons.

Even while UF regained the top spot Sunday in The Associated Press poll from Alabama, which was ranked No. 1 for a week ahead of the Gators, UF coach Urban Meyer appears to be growing weary of critics focusing only on his team's blemishes.

Though the Gators pulled away from Mississippi State in the fourth quarter for a 29-19 victory Saturday night to push their season record to 7-0 for the fifth time in team history and first time since 1996, questions continue to outnumber answers.

"There's a lot to build on and I'm going to build on that, not this other stuff," Meyer said Sunday during his teleconference with the media.

Of course, time also continues to tick as UF turns its attention to Saturday's showdown against Georgia in Jacksonville, Fla.

While the Gators extended the nation's longest winning streak to 17 against the MSU Bulldogs, coached by Dan Mullen, who helped UF win two of the last three national titles as offensive coordinator, they found themselves in a struggle in the fourth quarter for the second consecutive week.

Even Meyer admits to frustration, impatience and pressing to be perfect, but he also wants to make sure his players rally around each other and ignore outside distractions. Meyer addressed that situation following the game.

No finger-pointing and let's enjoy the journey, please.

"Very on guard with the human element," Meyer said.

"I have seen it in the past, I haven't seen it on this team yet. Just like this group of questions I have today [Sunday] I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about the young players and how they handle it and the way questions are sometimes worded and all of a sudden it's front-page headlines so-and-so said this, of course he didn't say that.

"I know how our players feel about each other. I just want to make sure that I addressed it. We had a great meeting and very good chemistry on our team and our guys are going to stick together."

Naturally, a second consecutive victory -- and fourth in the past five meetings -- over rival Georgia would go a long way to soothe Gator souls. Georgia (4-3), idle last Saturday, snapped a two-game losing streak with a 34-10 victory over Vanderbilt on Oct. 17.

Meyer won't have to look very far when he begins his search for answers this week

Tim TebowOnce again Saturday, UF faltered in the red zone. Mississippi State kept quarterback Tim Tebow and the Gators out of the end zone on four of five trips into the red zone. UF has scored just two touchdowns in 15 trips inside the opponent's 20-yard line in the last three games.

Tebow, meanwhile, had two interceptions returned for touchdowns and declined requests for interviews and quickly boarded the team bus following the game. It was only the second time in Tebow's UF career that he has tossed two picks in a game.

The Gators' passing game hasn't had much variety to it -- only tight end Aaron Hernandez (33 catches, 392 yards) and receiver Riley Cooper (27-396) have caught double-digit passes. Cooper, in fact, has 19 more receptions than the team's third-leading receiver, David Nelson.

Tebow also has more interceptions (four) than touchdowns (three) in five SEC games.

The good news was at least UF rushed for 249 yards against the Bulldogs, topping the 200-yard mark for the first time in three games.

Meyer's described Tebow as "very frustrated."

"He's used to playing at a certain level," Meyer said Sunday.

"A lot of guys are frustrated. You go down there and win 29-19, 10 points on the road and same old song and dance as the last couple weeks. Guys want to play better. One of the greatest stories of all is when we hold that Arkansas team [last week] and the defense was really upset with how they played.

"Our job as coaches is to coach them really hard, manage expectations and just play, have fun playing the game and not worry about this, worry about that. Today's day and age that's hard because it's just thrust upon you. Not coaches, who cares about coaches? I'm talking about these young players."

The Gators also received another stellar performance from its defense, even without injured All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes (groin) and two defensive linemen.

UF stuffed the Bulldogs' ground game, forced three turnovers as it picked off a season-high three passes and recorded four sacks, pushing its total to 13 over the last three games.

The Gators also survived potential disaster in the fourth quarter when linebacker Dustin Doe returned an interception 23 yards for a touchdown, but replays showed Brandon McRae might have stripped the ball from the celebrating linebacker short of the goal line.

Despite the frustration and nit-picking that accompanies the Gators' struggles, Meyer is not interested in excuses. Much has been made this year of lost play makers to the NFL, injuries and questionable decisions.

"You don't even think about that kind of stuff as far as the expectations and did we foresee an issue," Meyer said when asked if he underestimated the loss of players from last season such as receivers Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy.

"We lost a couple good players. It was a little like in '06, we lost a couple good players on defense. Everybody has that."

While UF didn't look like a national championship team Saturday, it's one of the few that still have a chance to win it as October begins to draw to a close.

"It's part of college football at the highest level," Meyer said.

"Why is one area or two areas or three areas not performing at a high level? There's more focus on that. We're going to work hard to improve that, that's what we do."

Tags: Tim+Tebow, TimTebow, Urban+Meyer, UrbanMeyer

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